Slow driving, other behaviors infuriate Ohio motorists

May 26, 2013

Men arguing with each other from their vehicles while driving / Getty Images/Comstock Images

Written by

Russ Zimmer

CentralOhio.com

Long weekends are perfect for road trips. They would be, anyway, if it wasn’t for all those terrible drivers — not you, of course — clogging the road, drifting between lanes and practically running all of us undeniably courteous motorists off the highway.

CentralOhio.com asked readers on Facebook to tell us what driving behaviors drive them crazy. Raging about the road spilled over from the interstate to the Internet.

In one of the more cooler-headed ruminations, a reader from Millersberg got to the heart of what most people were feeling.

“Most of the common problems are failure to have respect for other drivers on the road,” wrote Austin Yoder. “Using turn signals are meant to let others behind you, at the intersection and even oncoming drivers know what your intentions are. Maintaining the speed limit lets the roadway maintain the flow of traffic. There are just so many disrespectful drivers out there who act as if no one else matters.”

When we shared the results of the unscientific poll with the Ohio Highway Patrol, Lt. Anne Ralston said the responses were “right on target” in identifying some of the most annoying and potentially dangerous actions that the patrol observes while conducting traffic enforcement every day. Kimberly Schwind, spokeswoman for the AAA Ohio, noted the similarities between their unofficial list and what our readers came up with.

The point being these are universally abhorred driving behaviors. So knock it off.

Here are the top five:

No. 1: Not using turn signals

There’s a lever, usually on the side of the steering wheel, that when moved up or down triggers flashing lights on either the right or the left side of the vehicle, thus signifying to other drivers your intention to turn soon in that direction. Some people seem to not know this lever exists.

“It’s like they must be an ‘option’ that is just too expensive to add on when people buy a car!” she wrote on the paper’s Facebook page.

Troy Magers, owner and instructor at Lew Petit Driving School in Mansfield, said when he’s sitting shotgun with a student driver, they use turn signals everywhere, even in parking lots where it’s not a legal necessity. It’s good to get into the habit of always letting other drivers know what you’re doing, he said.

“People are just so lazy anymore. ‘I’ve got brake lights. They can see I’m slowing down,’” he said of the thought process of such drivers.

No. 2: Texting, or otherwise distracted, drivers

Much was made of the texting-while-driving law passed in Ohio in 2012. However, adults can’t be pulled over for just texting. It’s a secondary offense for drivers 18 and older, which means cops can only tack it on, like a seatbelt violation, to a speeding ticket.

Also, it’s not entirely clear what’s allowed and what isn’t. Reading and writing text messages and emails are definitely outlawed, but the law doesn’t say anything about the other million things you could be doing on a smartphone. And, of course, it doesn’t begin to address the other, lower-tech distractions that can grab a driver’s attention, such as the radio or paperwork from the office.

“We were looking through old records that were talking about distracted driving since the early 1900s,” Schwind said. “Ever since there have been automobiles, there has been distracted driving.”

Reader Misty Winston, of Lancaster, relayed one more decidedly anachronistic experience on Facebook.

“I was driving down (U.S.) 33 last year and I noticed the man in front of me was going really slow and weaving all over the place. I assumed he was texting and driving — one of my biggest pet peeves — so I waited for a safe time to pass and went around,” she said. “As I was going around I looked over and he had an entire map opened and in front of him on the steering wheel.”

No. 3: Driving slowly in the left lane

Few actions were more frustrating to readers than the flow of traffic being impeded by somebody driving — gasp! — the speed limit, albeit in a place where you shouldn’t be relaxing.

“Left lane squatters,” wrote Jeff Shomaker, of Pataskala, of his biggest pet peeve on the pavement. “The left lane is for passing, not driving. Move over and get out of the way.”

Magers said a car in the left lane that is pacing those in the right can cause traffic to back up, which creates what can be a dangerous situation. But a distinction needs to be made, he added.

“It’s not the fast lane, it’s the passing lane,” Magers said. “You can drive 65 in the passing lane (on the interstate) as long as you’re passing someone. There’s this misconception that the left lane is for speeding.”

Of the five most annoying driving habits, driving slowly in the left lane is the only one that is not illegal (a bill to outlaw it failed at the Ohio Statehouse in 2012), provided you aren’t breaking a minimum speed law. In fact, the people complaining about slow drivers might be the very same individuals perpetrating the next item on our list.

“They’re not doing anything illegal,” Ralston said of left-lane languishers. “Don’t get into a position where you (the trailing driver) start doing something else on the list, like tailgating or following too closely.”

No. 4: Tailgating

Everyone’s got somewhere to be and many drive like they needed to be there 10 minutes ago.

Tailgating was the most annoying driving habit to Chillicothe’s Linda Long Currier.

“Everyone’s always in hurry,” she wrote on Facebook. “If you are in that big a hurry, leave earlier so you don’t have to speed and tailgate people!”

Ralston said tailgating can take on a more official name: assured clear distance ahead. Many a trooper has written a ticket for that violation after a crash, she warned.

“When you’re following somebody too closely, it really diminishes your ability to see what’s going on further down the road, whether traffic is slowing down or if there’s an accident ahead,” she said. “It significantly disables that safety cushion.”

Magers said you should give a three-second buffer on a sunny day, four seconds on a rainy day and five if you’re dealing with snow or ice.

“What you can do is wait for that car (in front of you) to pass a fixed point — a sign on the side of the road — and then you start counting, one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand,” Magers said.

No. 5: Cutting off others

“Yesterday I think my van was invisible since everyone kept pulling out right in front of me!” wrote Charlotte Smith, of Mansfield

We all know this feeling.

Whether it’s that minivan pulling out of the gas station right in front of you or that sports car that slides just past your front bumper (no turn signal, naturally) while you’re doing 70 on the freeway, being cut off is not only annoying, it might be the most perilous action on the list.

Magers said this is where defensive driving techniques pay off. Drivers who are cut off ahead of a traffic crash might look at that situation and say it was the other guy’s fault and leave it there, he said.

“I understand that you weren’t charged with it, that you weren’t the one at fault,” he said. “But could you have prevented it? My guess is that a lot of them could have been prevented.”

Keep your head on a swivel, Magers said. Use your mirrors to know what’s going on around you — who’s passing on your left and where’d that Toyota go? Look ahead for possible troublemakers, like that guy who’s looking for the tiniest window to turn left out of that convenience store. And please, put that cellphone down.